Speaking of femininity . . .

Ah, for those who are still here after the title--
Ibanez and I were talking about Neruda, and Garcia Marquez, and Latin American writing in general and how strongly it is able to reflect a more feminine side of life/living/truth. Here's something from Gabriel Garcia Marquez's first volume of autobiography (called Living to Tell the Tale, translated by the inimitable Edith Grossman):

"I believe that the essence of my nature and way of thinking I owe in reality to the women in the family and to the many in our service who ministered to my childhood. They had strong characters and tender hearts, and they treated me with the naturalness of the Earthly Paradise." [then skipping a few paragraphs, in which he speaks of, among other instances, how when he was about six he saw one of the maids giving birth in the laundering room, with the aid of all the other maids] "In any case, I think my intimacy with the maids could be the origin of a thread of secret communication that I believe I have with women and that throughout my life has allowed me to feel more comfortable and sure with them than with men. It may also be the source of my convictions that they are the ones who maintain the world while we men throw it into disarray with our historic brutality."

Reading this made me want to reread everything of his that I've read! I have been thinking, recently, that I like to get to read books and authors the same way it is interesting to get to know people--everyone has something we can empathize with, and everyone has at least one thing we can find interesting. It doesn't matter what's absolutely true, really--if I read Garcia Marquez's books differently now, is that so wrong? This isn't explaining it well. In any case, I'd like your thoughts.